Wow it has been almost a year ago since I posted anything. Then I was in Panama when it seems there is more time on hand to write. So if anyone is still checking on Don´s whereabouts here goes.
My apologies, life it seems has a way of keeping us busy, too busy at times when it means being disconnected from friends in far flung places.
I´m doing well with summers devoted to trying to finish my Spirit House. A report on that follows.
I also now have a part-time job as a tour guide for Northern Alaska Tour Company. I started with the company in August of 2016.
I have not given up on long distance bike riding for a purpose. I remain open to possibilities and the where and what the Universe would have me do next. That remains a bit murky yet but an outline is emerging and will share that as events unfold. In the meantime there is writing to do and will post what ensues from that. The most recent is Trashing a National Treasure about what our Congress in its ill advised wisdom would do to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That was written for the Fairbanks Daily New Miner as a letter to the editor before I left on 11/13/2017.
First I wanted to give a progress report on my Spirt House/Yurt, what a friend playfully called a Spurt. I didn´t begin working on it through the previous winter but got an early start in the spring of this year. I attached four rows of nailers for the siding with long screws over six layers of 1¨ foam insulation I had thought to stucco the outside but changed my mind. I had no experience doing that and decided instead on using stained, rough sawed green white spruce planks with battens covering the seams.
The next project was building an exit through the joists for a wood stove chimney. I debated whether to run it through the wall then vertically up the side and not penetrate the rubber roof. In the end I came up with a workable design to run it vertically through the joists and seal the rubber roof over a small plywood deck around the chimney. I was worried the stove wouldn´t draw properly with a horizontal run through the wall. I didn´t get the stove bought (a Jotul Model 118, Black Bear) and finally installed until late in the summer and finally was able to heat the place. It was heavy, 320 pounds of cast iron. It took me and three other friends to get it from truck inside.
I didn´t keep track of all the time I spent thinking and then building the front and only door to the place but it was well over a month. Still for all the time spent I was happy with the result in the end.
For starters the door height was non standard. And I also didn´t want a conventional square door. Instead I built in an arched top, one complication to framing, then I used wood on the interior and exterior sandwiching 2¨ of foam insulation in between. That threw it into a thickness, 3 1/2 inches, that most door hardware wouldn´ After some searching I found a deadbolt made by Schlage that would accommodate a door this thick. The door handles inside and out are a nearly matched pair of antlers from a young bull moose a friend and I hunted up some years back. Wood on the outside is planed down planks off an abandoned garage roof I tore down the spring before. It has an aged look from the staining where nails penetrated the wood. For the inside I used 5¨ tongue and groove smooth white spruce milled locally. Door jambs came from the same source as the outside of the door.
Door seals and floor jamb are similar to a Swede door a friend had installed in a storage building. The floor seal is a strip of aluminum set into a wood jamb. When the door closes a tubular silicone rubber weather seal inset in the door bottom butts up against it. The other three sides of the door are similarly sealed, inset in the door or the jamb. To close the door requires a little pull on the antler to overcome the resistance of the seals and close the deadbolt.
These details may be a bit boring side from someone not into construction as I was. For me this project has been more about the creative process and finding solutions to problems as they arose. There were many, the door being especially challenging.
Lastly, what to put on the outside of the door for trim? I tried flat 1x4 boards at first but was left unsatisfied by their appearance. A moment of inspiration came and resulted in the creation of an Alaskan version of a Japanese Torii, two vertical posts supporting horizontal beams with a slight upward arch. Japanese Torii mark the entrance to a sacred space like a shrine. I used round logs cut from nearby standing dead white spruce. This took a lot of fussing and carving to shape with a draw knife and chisel to get a decent fit.
Emphasis here is on decent. I finally had to let go of my perfectionist tendencies and accept what resulted as the best I could manage. Flaws are apparent for the most part only to the builder.
Finally in October before the snow came I added a raised walkway in front where melt water accumulates in the spring.
All for now. Trashing a National Treasure to follow. Peace Rider
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